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Friday, 02 January 2009

With the release of "Francophonic", the Congolese singer-guitarist-bandleader François Luambo has finally got the retrospective he deserves. During his performing years he performed as "Franco". He was widely regarded as one of the greatest African musicians of the twentieth century and has been dubbed the "James Brown of Africa" and a "sorcerer of the guitar".

The album starts with a track from his first recording session in 1953 at the age of 15 and ends with a 1980 workout whose title translates as "I Don't Like You".

The two-disc set contains excellent liner notes which give fascinating facts about the music. For example : most of Franco’s international audience assumed the exquisite 1973 recording “AZDA” was a love song; it was actually a jingle for a Zairean Volkswagen dealership!

1 comment:

You have a very unique blog, which is quite refreshing. Prior to reading the article, I had never heard of François Luambo. I was impressed that he led 2 bands and supported 40 musicians, dancers and their family. Even more amazing was the fact that he had 150 albums. Wow!

I looked him up on Napster, but couldn't find him. I did listen to Azda on Amazon & liked what I heard. Thanks for sharing.